Terrorist - back in the water!

Terrorist, the unusual Bruce King bilgeboarder that featured in the 1974 One Ton Cup has been back in the water, albeit briefly. This impressive restoration project by Paul Tullos achieved its milestone recently for the purposes of fine tuning the internal ballasting - with her twin asymmetric bilgeboards, Terrorist relied on a combination of internal lead ballast and wide beam for stability. Tullos says that it was gratifying to put the boat in the water - if only for a few minutes - after almost three years of work.

In the water at last - March 2013 (all photos by Paul Tullos)

The new ballast is lead shot, and because of its reduced density Tullos has extended the ballast compartment fore and aft.  The shot was poured into the hull after the compartment was blasted and then coated with two layers of Interprotect.  Now that the yacht has been floated and the ballast properly trimmed, the shot has been encapsulated with epoxy laminating resin.  


The ballast now installed

The yacht will be fitted with a carbon-fibre mast and the increased righting moment earned by the new spar has saved about 1,000lbs of internal ballast compared to the yacht's original configuration.

A view of the hull just before launching

Terrorist is located in Lake Texoma, about 2 hours south of Oklahoma City. A trailer has been built for the yacht which will allow her to be transported between Corpus Christi, New Orleans and Los Angeles.

Some history about Terrorist and other photographs of her restoration are here, and check the latest photos of her sailing in 2014.